TONITE (24 december 2003) MARS LIVE :

You can watch the probe BEAGLE 2 landing on mars live tonite between 1h25 AM to 8h30 AM GMT on ths ESA site :

mars.esa.int...

[Edited on 24-12-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

(I posted this at 10h54 GMT and the probe will arrive in 15 hours...)

[Edited on 24-12-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

its a little bit late or early it depends how you look on it but I will try to have a look tonight

Thanx for the update Nans!!

Latest report from Beagle 2 web site says:

"Heading for the Bullseye
24-Dec-03 09:57 GMT
...................................................
Summary

Further to our update yesterday, current calculations suggest that the landing ellipse is 70km (43 miles) long by 11km (7 miles) across.

The calculation was made by Arthur Smith of Fluid Gravity Engineering. As you can see from the picture below, the area of this landing ellipse would barely cover London. " at

www.beagle2.com...

For UK viewers, "Beagle 2 is expected to land at 0254 GMT on Christmas Day
Mission controllers are gearing up for the arrival of Europe's first mission to Mars.
The UK Mars lander, Beagle 2, is expected to land at 0254 GMT on Christmas morning to search for signs of life, past or present." from

news.bbc.co.uk...

I'm not sure if there will be a "Special" TV presentation but I'm sure News 24 will cover it??

Go Beagle 2!!

Let's keep this one bumped, folks... it's a good topic and a good "watch" topic.

I'm sure everyone has already realised this and I'm just slow, but I'm already getting the giggles in anticipation of the announcement 'The Beagle has Landed'.

The angle of the silly walk in your sig, there, Kano, makes it look like he's booting the Beagle towards Mars!

I thought I read that they didn't expect all the modules to make it down... though that may have been NASA "sour grapes."

now lets hope they dont get inches and centimeters mixed up, like the good friends at NASA.

Or forget a zero, huh?

I'm sure everyone has already realised this and I'm just slow, but I'm already getting the giggles in anticipation of the announcement 'The Beagle has Landed'.

Man, that never even occurred to me, hehe....

So, will the Beagle think that any Martian flying Saucer to be the Red Baron?

I'll be watching and covering developments live on ATS, now that i'm the self proclaimed newsreader of the board.

Hey, it's good to have a newsreader. What we need to have is a collection of "places likely to have first news stories." Other news has kind of overrun the lander story, but you know, on a day like today when there's so much stress and stories of threats and rumors and paranoia... the landing of a little spacecraft on a distant planet is a nice thing to read about.

Originally posted by Byrd
Hey, it's good to have a newsreader. What we need to have is a collection of "places likely to have first news stories." Other news has kind of overrun the lander story, but you know, on a day like today when there's so much stress and stories of threats and rumors and paranoia... the landing of a little spacecraft on a distant planet is a nice thing to read about.

Good idea, i thought a little about comprising a "the good, the bad and the ugly" of news sites, i'll get onto it later, of course submissions are welcomed!

Getting ready to (hopefully!) witness a successful mission, here's the current plan for Christmas day:

24th Dec
Night
Final decision to steer Mars Express into a Martian orbit


25th Dec
02:54 GMT
Beagle 2 lands on Mars


25th Dec
03:00 GMT
Mars Express orbital insertion


25th Dec
05:30 GMT
Mars Odyssey orbiter flies over Beagle 2 - first possible signal retrieval from the lander


25th Dec
06:30-07:00 GMT
Mars Odyssey contacts NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, first possible signal from Beagle 2 received on Earth

Links:::::::::
� See the technology FAQs�


25th Dec
07:00 GMT
First evaluation of Mars Express orbital insertion


25th Dec
07:15 GMT
Sunset on Mars (18:35 local solar time)


25th Dec
20:02 GMT
Sunrise on Mars (07:02 local solar time)


25th Dec
22:45 GMT
Possible direct capture of Beagle 2 signals at Jodrell Bank Observatory (UK)

Go Beagle 2!!

Originally posted by Byrd
I thought I read that they didn't expect all the modules to make it down... though that may have been NASA "sour grapes."

They are pretty justified in their thinking. I read somewhere that only a third of probes have managed to land on Mars without destructing.
I also have to admit to being more interested in the NASA rovers that are landing in January. Although Beagle contains a mini-lab, I can't remember reading anywhere that it has cameras on board as opposed to the rovers.
I don't think that there will be much that they can tell us tonight other than that the probe has landed. It's going to take ages for them to collect and verify any data. I believe the first few hours are going to be all about the probe setting itself up using solar power.

So Beagle is going to sit there analysing, whereas the rovers are able to trundle off looking for little green men and relaying TV pictures back to Earth. Much cooler in my opinion.